Pilgrims on the Way

Once again up early in an effort to beat the heat. I was up and packed before 6 AM and out the door ten minutes later.  San Juan de Ortega is a tiny village – really most of it is just the buildings of the old monastery – and so the street lights ended after less than 50 m from […]

Yesterday evening, I prayed for the intentions of the Camino in an early 12th century chapel built into a cave on the site of a hermitage that was in use from the third through the sixth centuries. Since I was staying in the parroquial, they took us up to the cliff and gave us the tour. The statue of the […]

Great dinner last night on the plaza with Tara and Stefanie. I made the decision to walk a slightly longer day today, adding an extra 6 km to go past Belorado to Tosantos. We shall see if any of our pilgrim cohort join me there. I woke up stupid early this morning, thanks to a rooster crowing somewhere nearby, and […]

I learned last night that the storm we walked through in the Pyrenees was one of the worst of the year so far. Winds were clocked at 80 km/h, which is roughly 50 mph. Up and packed by 6:30, and the question of breakfast was next to tackle. I wandered back to the bridge, trying to make sense out of […]

After a solid breakfast, a group of us were out by 7:20 and into the well lit streets of the city of Logroño. After some urban walking through a business district, the Camino turned down a lovely (and long) city park. The road we were walking just continued as a pedestrian and bicycle boulevard lined with trees out into the […]

I knew today was going to be a long, hot day, so I broke my rule about starting in the dark in Spain. After a hearty Austrian breakfast featuring good brown bread, I said goodbye to many of my Camino companions for the past few days: Allison and Morgan, Rebecca, even Philip. Given our schedules for the next few days, […]

Apparently my body, knowing that today was going to be a short day, slightly overslept. I mean, I was up at 5 AM with a jolt, but I immediately fell back to sleep.  Even so, I was packed and ready to go at just before 7:30 AM. Despite the lateness, I hadn’t actually slept very well. The most uncomfortable bed! […]

There were many churches I wanted to visit in Pamplona, including the 13th century church of San Cernín, which has a Baroque chapel containing the miraculous statue of la Virgen del Camino. Unfortunately, most all of them were closed, probably due to the chaos intendant on the fiesta. Perhaps next time.  How bad were the crowds? We briefly joined a […]

By 7 AM I was up, packed, and meandering towards breakfast. Once again, the voices of doom were predicting no beds available in Pamplona, the largest city on the Camino in Spain and my intended destination for the day.  Sophie left early, but Tara and I left together about seven to walk in the dark and spooky forest. After about […]